No matter what these sales emails say when you pop open your inbox, you may not be doing it wrong. Realize that a part of sales tactic is to try to make you think you need the product and therefore it’s a no brainer to purchase it. Where indeed at times you may need the additional help, it’s important to decipher sales tactics from what’s actually taking place here. Too often in comparison to others or through pushy sales emails, no matter what we have going on we’ll think there’s something we’re doing wrong.

I was watching a webinar the other day and they were speaking about Instagram. As they reviewed a young lady’s IG, the comment was, “To have this many posts, you should have way more followers.” More instruction preceded, but that stuck with me echoing in my head. Here I was just days ago, proud of the fact that from the muscle I have added over 1500 followers to my account over the last year. Only to compare my account to the young ladies and ours were very similar. So clearly, I also had too many posts to compare to the amount of followers right? Immediately my win was a lost. I am somehow behind and no longer can celebrate my achievement because I haven’t really achieved anything according to this audit.

Well, that is a crock of bull. SO after spending time trying to delete some posts and looking at my own Instagram sideways and trying to figure out how I could garner more followers, I said forget this! I distinctly remember being under 1000 followers on both Twitter and Instagram and you can’t tell me that my distinctive tactics and growth to get where I am now is not something to be celebrated. So many people have made a living on placating our insecurities and it’s just annoying at this point.

More important than a large following is an engaged audience. People will make you think that you are less than without 10k followers, but if you are only getting 23 likes or MORE IMPORTANTLY 1 or 2 purchases from those 10K, then something is wrong there. I have scraped and scrambled and been authentic for every single person that is a part of this tribe. And I would never diminish their impact on my brand and business just because there aren’t a million of them.

Similarly, I was having a conversation with my significant other and I was explaining some changes I wanted to make to the site. He said something to me that stopped me right in my tracks. He said “Is your audience confused about this?” I thought about it for a moment and said, “No, I am just comparing myself to other colleagues.” Truth moment. Why are we measuring ourselves up to other people doing similar things instead of focusing on the people that really matter? It sounds so ridiculous but we do it all the time.

It’s not just in business, it’s in life in general. So when My Creative Connection also tweeted this:

So many times we look at other's success and think 'what am I doing wrong? what am I missing?' But that way of thinking is dangerous.

I said, okay, we need to address this! Stop thinking that because such and such has a new car and a house that you are doing something wrong. It simply may not be your time for those things yet. Last year I spent so much time refining my brand. So that took a lot of learning and research and education. But this is the year to put that into practice. We cannot keep filling our heads up with information and not falling into the process of execution. So I am continuing to exercise my unsubscribe button from people or brands that make me feel like clearly I haven’t gotten the memo because of my follower count or my bank statements.

Everything is a process. You may actually be on the right track. And because you are so busy looking at the person next to you, you veer off chasing whatever they are telling you to do. Eventually you may find your way back to the original track, but just imagine how much farther you would be if you had just stayed focused?

There will always be room to grow. Always better tactics that we can employ, but we have to take that with a grain of salt. I believe that greatness takes time. Sure we all want to soar and make six figures and live lives that look good on Instagram and all that. But often times, we are not privy to the journey that came before the dynamic, filtered pics. Don’t discredit your achievements. Don’t discredit where you are. It may just be a stepping stone in the journey to greatness.

I promise to do my best alongside of you to stay focused on what writelaughdream.com represents. And darn it, I am proud of what I created here. Yes I would love even more views, and more comments, and more revenue. But I know that I am on my way. I trust that God’s wisdom about next steps are more valuable than any course that I could purchase. Not that I don’t think courses are great. I have taken some and I create them. BUT, just allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and to affirm whether or not you need to do something different or whether you just need to be patient while your greater manifest.

Be honest, have you ever found yourself changing something or jumping off the deep end because you saw someone else winning and all of a sudden every great thing you achieved was minimal? Tell me about it in the comments below.